Recent Updates

Battling 25‑knot headwinds, northbound into Atlanta’s DeKalb‑Peachtree, ATC gave clearance to both my Mooney Ovation and a nearby Bonanza: “Direct WRGNZ, WRGNZ ONE arrival.” ATC kept me at 6000 feet and descended the Bonanza to 4000 for spacing. I could see the Bonanza’s groundspeed on ADS‑B, and even with his descent I was gaining on […]

Electric Aircraft Replies to last week’s letter regarding electric aircraft: 1. In flight aircraft fires are one of the most deadly potential scenarios a pilot has to deal with. Smoke is also a worry. REPLY: We have designed our battery pack in a ventilated compartment with a smoke detector and a special instant fire stop. […]

AVweb’s weekly news roundup found reports on an aviation upgrades shop expanding its autopilot offerings, a convention appearance for Click Aviation Network and a new training management system for Pobeda Airlines. Air Plains Services has announced that it is adding Genesys Aerosystems autopilots to its list of available products. The Kansas-based company offers general aviation […]

The FAA issued an airworthiness directive (AD) on Friday grounding Cessna CitationJet 525, 525A and 525B models with Tamarack active load alleviation system (ATLAS) winglets installed until a modification can be developed and approved. The FAA says the AD (PDF) is the result of mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) issued by the European Aviation Safety […]

NASA announced on Thursday that it has selected Colorado-based Maxar Technologies to develop and demonstrate power, propulsion and communications capabilities for its Lunar Gateway project. The contract begins with a 12-month base period followed by a 26-month option, a 14-month option and two 12-month options. During the base period, Maxar will be expected to design […]

Embraer’s Praetor 600 business jet has received type certificates from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the U.S Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the company announced on Monday at the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Switzerland. As previously reported by AVweb, the aircraft was introduced at the National Business Aviation […]

President Trump announced via Twitter on Tuesday that he will be nominating Barbara Barrett as the 25th Secretary of the United States Air Force. Barrett has served as Chairman of the Board of The Aerospace Corporation—a federally funded research and development center that is “committed exclusively to the space enterprise”—FAA deputy administrator, vice chairman of […]

Because it’s just not practical to call multirotor flying machines “those multirotor thingies” we’ve come up with two terms to describe them, one for the machine itself and one for the market we imagine they will serve, such that we can imagine anything accurately in the midst of what’s clearly a revolution in aviation. The […]

Textron Aviation has announced that it is getting close to completing its Cessna Denali prototype as well as the first two flight and three ground test articles for the clean-sheet, high-performance, single-engine turboprop. According to Textron, the prototype and the first two production conforming aircraft will be used in the flight test program, while the […]